The invention relates to an apparatus for shaping or stabilizing the shape of cuboidal (cigarette) packs, especially during the setting of glue of adhesively bonded folding tabs.
Packs made of paper or thin cardboard are usually designed such that folding tabs covering one another are connected to one another by adhesive bonding (glue). With packaging machines of particularly high performance, especially for a cigarette packs, it is often not possible to guarantee a sufficient setting of glue areas because of the short cycles. This is the reason why these sort of packaging machines are equipped with separate drying turrets which hold a large number of finished but not yet dried packs (e.g. DE-A-26 32 968). Said drying turrets also have the function of preserving or stabilizing the (cuboidal) shape of the pack.
Drying turrets of the abovementioned kind are complicated in structure and handling. Moreover, the capacity for the packs to be treated is not sufficient for machines of particularly high performance. Notwithstanding the high output, it is still desirable that the packs remain in a shaping unit for a sufficient amount of time to allow the glue areas to set.